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January 1919: Barricade in Berlin during the uprising.

The Spartacist uprising (German: Spartakusaufstand), also
known as the January uprising
(Januaraufstand), was a general strike (and the armed battles
accompanying it) in Germany
from January 5 to January 12, 1919. Its suppression is considered
to mark the end of the German
Revolution. The name Spartacist uprising is generally used for
the event even though neither the Spartakusbund nor the
Communist Party of Germany
(KPD) initiated or led the uprising and only participated after it
had already begun. It was only one of a number of reasons
contributing to disillusionment within Germany towards the Weimar
Government.

Several workers then spontaneously seized the editorial office
of a newspaper in the Kochstraße in Berlin and erected barricades
on the streets. They were soon joined by more workers and blocked
several streets in the newspaper quarter, including the office of
the SPD organ "Forward" (Vorwärts). The newspaper had printed
articles hostile to the Spartacists since the beginning of
September.

The leaders of the USPD and the KPD soon decided to support the
actions of the workers. They appealed for a general strike in
Berlin on January 7, which was followed by about 500,000 people,
who surged into downtown Berlin on that weekend. In the following
two days, however, the strike leadership, the so-called
Revolution Committee, was not able to agree on how to
proceed. Some called for armed insurgency, others advocated
deliberations with Ebert. The workers still squatting in the
buildings obtained weapons.

Even within the Communist Party there was dissent on what to do.
Karl
Liebknecht, unlike Rosa Luxemburg, advocated violently
overthrowing the Ebert government, because otherwise the KPD could
become too distant from the workers who were planning to do just
this. At the same time several KPD leaders tried to pull the regiments stationed in
Berlin, especially the Volksmarinedivision, onto their side. Their
armed presence was supposed to prevent fighting. This was, however,
unsuccessful, because most of the soldiers had already gone home or
because of their loyalty to the Rat der
Volksbeauftragten.

On January 8, the KPD left the Revolution Committee
after USPD representatives had invited Friedrich Ebert for talks.
While these took place, the workers found out about a flyer
published by Vorwärts titled "Die Stunde der Abrechnung
naht!" (The hour of vengeance is coming soon!) and about
the Freikorps
(anti-Republican paramilitary organizations, who fought the Weimar Republic
and the November Revolution), whom the SPD administration had hired
to suppress the workers. Ebert had ordered defense ministerGustav Noske, also a
member of the SPD, to do so on January 6. Then the Revolution
Committee stopped talks with the SPD. The Spartacist League
then called for its members to take part in armed combat.

On the same day, Ebert ordered the Freikorps to attack the workers. The
former soldiers still had weapons and military equipment from World War I, which gave
them a formidable advantage. They quickly re-conquered the blocked
streets and buildings; many of the workers surrendered, which did
not prevent the soldiers from shooting hundreds of them. An unknown
number of civilians also died during the fighting. Liebknecht and
Luxemburg were captured by Freikorps and killed.